[ train whistle blows ] >> a texas-sized model railway... >> do you have any idea what steve spent to put this together? >> i've always heard $1 million. >> ...built by a man on a mission. >> he's telling his life story in trains. >> he is. he is. yes. >> whenever he would add something to it, he said, "you want to see your inheritance again?" >> an inheritance freighted with memories. >> so tell me the truth. did y'all make out at that movie theater? >> no, not that one. [ both laugh ] >> will their plan fall apart? >> your first cut could be the end of this railroad. >> well... [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ]

>> i'm jamie colby driving through dallas, texas. what do you get when you couple a one-track mind to a boxcar full of bucks? a strange inheritance that i'm told is just the ticket. >> my name is jane sanders. my husband, steve, was always into his model trains. but when he got sick, they became much more than a hobby. they took him on the trip of a lifetime. >> i meet jane at her home here in dallas. she leads me upstairs, and i am transported to a railroad wonderland. [ train whistle blows ] oh, my goodness. unbelievable. it's massive, 2,000 square feet, taking up an entire wing of jane's house. oh, my gosh. that's so fantastic! the locomotives drive past hundreds of hand-crafted

figurines and intricate details. there's two men sharing lunch on the stairs, a blonde bombshell hitchhiker, a 1950's gas station. they're cleaning the windshield like the good, old days. >> yes. >> and a scene from main street, usa. >> there's the diner with people actually sitting in there eating. >> absolutely spectacular, to every detail, jane. what's more, there's a tale behind each detail joined together like verses of a poem written by jane's late husband, steve. >> it's all his story. >> a story that begins in 1944, when steve sanders is born right here in the heart of texas. >> his mother would take him to union station in downtown dallas, then put him on a train to go to camp in colorado. he just always loved it, so ever since then, his love of trains built up. >> a love that continues to build even through steve's college years at the kemper military school in missouri.

steve goes on to become a green beret who sees action in vietnam, is wounded, and awarded a purple heart. >> he loved his military service. that was the best thing he ever did in his life. >> back in dallas, he's set up with jane on a blind date. had you ever met someone like steve before? >> no, and i never have since. he was a very, very loving person, generous, and enjoyed life. >> steve and jane are soon married, and he opens his first business, a hobby shop. >> that's when he started collecting the trains. i didn't think about it. he would just buy the trains and set them back, and set them back. >> steve goes after the largest-size models he can find, the g-scale trains made in germany. "g" stands for "gross," german for big. >> he wanted the biggest and the best. >> in 1981, another of steve's dreams comes true when he and jane adopt twin girls, christina and stephanie.

did it change him to be a father? >> yeah. in a lot of ways, it did. he was so protective of those girls. oh, my gosh. he just was so scared about anything happening to them. >> how would you describe him and his love of trains? >> he would find ways for us to go on train trips. he made us ride the train all the way from dallas to minnesota once. it was horrible, but he had a great time. >> steve wants to give a better life to his young daughters, so he looks to make more money by going to work in the family oil-drilling business and becoming a precious-metals dealer. >> he used to work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, and everybody would say, "well, why are you working so hard?" he goes, "well, i have to take care of my girls." >> and steve keeps buying up model trains. his lucrative business ventures allow him to add hundreds of engines, cars and pieces of track to his stockpile. probably some you didn't know about. >> yeah. well, i never really paid a whole lot of attention to them. i would just keep seeing these red boxes building up.

>> steve does have a plan. one day, he's going to build the model railway of his dreams. >> he had a train room, and he had started a small train set. it was never finished. >> we weren't allowed to touch it, not allowed to play on it, and we'd be climbing on it, and he'd, "get off that! that's where my trains are going to go!" >> maybe he'll finish it when he retires, when he'll have all the time in the world. but steve learns the 60s can be a cruel decade. he suffers a string of health setbacks -- triple-bypass surgery, prostate cancer, and multiple back operations. so much for a life of leisure. he really suffered. >> he was so tired, in pain, everything. >> steve knows the proverbial train is leaving the station. it's time, once and for all, to finish that railroad display. he'd always had a big vision for it, but knew he needed help bringing it to life,

first-class help. so he tracked down an artist who designs museum exhibits and film sets. >> steve approached me and wanted someone to design the ultimate train layout. >> robert reid is dazzled by steve's ambitious plan. he's on board. but did they start too late to fulfill steve's dream? >> that was the tragedy. >> here's a "strange inheritance" quiz question... they're all model-railroad enthusiasts, but which music legend was a spokesman for lionel trains? the answer after the break. bethany: did you know breast cancer kills 113 people every day? catherine: that's unacceptable. jacinte: african american women die from breast cancer nearly 41% more than caucasian women. gordon: that's unacceptable. laura: breast cancer is the leading cause of all cancer deaths for hispanic women. jacinte: breast cancer is unacceptable.

lesa: together, with susan g. komen we're committed to reducing u.s. breast cancer deaths by half. melissa: and we're going to do it by 2026. lesa (vo): failure is unacceptable.

♪ >> so, which music legend was a spokesman for lionel trains in the '70s? neil young was a part owner of lionel, but it's johnny cash, the man in black, who served as its spokesman in the 1970s. >> for decades, these model trains are stockpiled in steve sanders' texas home to be used one day in the mother of all model railroads. in his 60s, with his health in decline, steve works with a movie-set and museum-display designer to finally bring his lifelong dream to fruition. >> he wanted it to be a tour of the southwest from colorado through new mexico to arizona

to west texas and on through dallas. >> he's telling his life story in trains. >> he is. it is. he was definitely involved. each little vignette had to tell an important story. >> but putting together a display for steve's g-scale trains is a huge challenge. >> it's much larger than most train layouts. figures in this scale are very difficult to come by. >> hundreds of figures like these, many personally handcrafted and all custom painted. >> these weren't things that you just buy off the shelf. we had people making trees, all the rock work, the scenic work. we actually created the buildings, most of them from scratch. steve, running out of time but not money, spares no expense. forty-two thousand dollars to create a pint-sized drive-in theater, complete with a feature film playing on the screen. >> it's a miniature projector. it's not a tv screen. and then the sound comes from original

drive-in movie speakers. >> steve pays a sculptor $80,000 more to create a rocky mountain scene that includes 32-inch trees and a working tram. and another $40,000 for murals to give it the feel of big sky country. >> there's shooting stars that go across the sky. there's thunder and lightning effects. we were able to develop something that was museum worthy. >> dad always did everything all the way, especially this. >> do you have any idea what steve spent to put this together? >> i've always heard the figure of $1 million. >> does it matter? >> not to me. i thought he works hard, he's a good husband, if he wants it, let him have it. before i knew it, this is what we end up with. >> what were your thoughts about it? >> whenever he would add something to it or finish it, even though i'd seen it a hundred times, he goes, "you want

to see your inheritance again?" >> in december 2012, after four years of construction, the 2,000-square-foot display is finally completed. it seems that it's not just a train set. >> it's pretty much the story of his life. >> the journey starts here, 1950's dallas union station, where steve's love affair with trains first blossomed. from there, the layout heads to steve's boyhood summer camp in colorado. then continues past his hobby shop and through the oil fields of west texas, which helped make him rich. then there's the ranch where jane and steve raised their girls. is it an exact replica? >> pretty close. it has the blue roof, which is one of favorite things that we had about it. >> and that drive-in? playing an army movie. tell me the truth. did y'all make out at that movie theater?

>> no, not that one. [ both laugh ] >> and, of course, he creates a tribute to his wife, the mary jane train station. and it's more than just a massive piece of art. steve designed seven track loops that can handle up to 12 engines running simultaneously. >> he had ideas in his head and he'd be sure whatever he wanted done, got done and done the right way. >> with his vision realized, steve began sharing his magnificent train display with anyone who will come see it. and he loved that? >> oh, heavens yes. he stood up there and ran those trains all night long. >> but steve's joy is short-lived. in february 2013, just months after the display is finished, steve is diagnosed with his most dire ailment, stage-four lung cancer. >> he'd walk me in here and show me how to work everything. >> because he knew he wouldn't be able to be the conductor here forever.

>> yeah. he wanted to make sure we knew how to take care of everything, including his trains. >> his illness spreads quickly. >> he was diagnosed february the 12th and died may the 28th. that was all the time we had left. >> that was the tragedy. we finished this masterpiece and he had such little time to enjoy it. >> steve sanders is just 68 years old. what do you miss the most? >> [ voice breaking ] i miss the most sitting at the dinner table with him and us exchanging stories. that's my hardest time every day. >> he leaves his enormous model train display, along with hundreds of trains in storage, in the care of his daughters and widow. did steve tell you what to do? >> no. he got sick and died so quickly that we didn't have time to discuss it. >> so, for the time being, jane just keeps the display in her home, acting as it's loyal custodian. >> it's a full-time job to take care of them,

to keep them clean and running in good shape. >> then in 2017, jane decides to downsize her life, putting her 10,000-square-foot house on the market. >> i knew i'd have to do something at some point. i felt like i didn't want to leave it to my daughters to have to deal with it. >> it's time to tear up the tracks. but then what? >> here's another quiz question for you... the answer when we return. hey guys. today we're here to talk about trucks. i love trucks. what the heck is that?! whoa! what truck brand comes from the family of the most dependable, longest-lasting full-size pickups on the road? i think it's the chevy. ford. is it ford? nope, it's not ford. i think it's ram. is it ram? not ram.

that's a chevy! it's chevy! that's right. from the family of the most dependable, longest-lasting full-size pickups on the road. gorgeous. chevy hit it out of the ballpark with these.

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>> the term described the constant dancing motion of track workers as they lunged against their tools in unison to nudge the rails. >> his 2,000-square-foot model-train display tells steve sanders' life story. he built it in his house in dallas and, before he died, he taught his daughters, christina and stephanie, how to operate it. and now they're going to teach me. >> i happen to love trains. are you going to let me try something? >> of course. >> show me how it works. >> okay. pull this lever slowly and we're going to go one after the other. >> all systems go. seems easy, until steve's daughters warn me that his complicated layout demands that the trains run at precise speeds. get it wrong, and i'll crash a couple of very expensive locomotives into each other. yikes! so i'm driving three trains at once.

fortunately today, nothing goes off the rails. i love it. i could be here all day. what steve didn't do was instruct his widow, jane, what he wanted her to do with the trains after he died. do you wish he had made these kind of arrangements before? >> well, i wish had, but there just really wasn't the time to even get into it. >> jane estimates steve spent about $1 million on the trains and layout. so perhaps selling off the cars and display, piece by piece, could be just the ticket. enter appraiser laurence martin to provide his expert financial analysis. >> i went through every train, every locomotive, every car. it was over 126 man hours. i mean, shock and awe would be a good way to phrase that. >> and you'd be shocked how much some of steve's model trains are worth. >> he has one locomotive, was by row and company,

that is one of only 30 in the world. >> its value -- $5,300. this pennsylvania railroad model is one of only 250 and worth nearly $4,000. while this limited-edition steam engine comes in at $1,900. the train total -- $137,000. steve's custom display itself is a different story. with no real secondary market, those pieces won't fetch anything near what he paid for them. >> i don't know too many people that spend that kind of money to have a model train set running around in their house. >> laurence estimates the layout and all its components are worth about $200,000, so it doesn't make much sense to sell off the inheritance piecemeal. and that's actually a relief for stephanie and christina. >> his only dream was to make sure that everyone that wanted to could enjoy them.

>> but then, what to do? how many options did you have? >> not very many. it's so big that not just anybody could take it. >> the family begins seeking out someone who could take the entire display. >> originally, i'd love to have given then to the children's hospital, but they didn't have the room. it just wasn't feasible. >> so they reach out to a bigger facility. >> we checked with at&t stadium, too, but it was a little large for the stadium so... >> even for a stadium? >> even for the stadium. >> but the family doesn't give up yet. they leave their info at a museum in nearby frisco, texas. >> i got a message on my desk that someone had an interest in donating a train layout to us. >> bob laprelle is the ceo of the museum of the american railroad, which has honored railroad history since 1962. you must get calls all the time of people who think their train sets are good enough for a museum. >> yes, we do. in fact, we've turned down quite a few over the years. >> did you come immediately out to see it?

>> we came out within a week or so. it just blew us away. the creativity that went into this layout far exceeds just about anything else we've ever seen. >> the family offers to donate the display, plus steve's vast collection of model trains, to the museum. but there's still one, giant bridge to cross. what if you start taking it apart, and it's destroyed? what's your "strange inheritance" story? we'd love to tell it. send me an e-mail or go to our website, strangeinheritance.com.

♪ >> now back to "strange inheritance." >> jane sanders and her daughters want to donate the gigantic model train display their husband and father left behind to the museum of the american railroad in frisco, texas. it's got to be a little bittersweet. >> it is. it's almost like it's the end of an era. >> and how do you feel about that? >> happy that everyone is going

to enjoy his dream but sad that it's not ours to keep to ourselves anymore. >> was it a piece of your husband leaving? >> it is, but at the same time i know so many more people are going to get to see it, and that's what he wanted. >> now train museum ceo bob laprelle needs to clear the biggest hurdle -- moving the layout without destroying it. this can't be very easy. >> well, it's a massive project, and it's a specialized job. >> your first cut could be the end of this railroad. it could fall apart. >> well... >> in june 2017, the breakdown begins. step one -- label every single one of the thousands of individual pieces. >> we'll try to document as much as we can of the existing configuration of the layout before we attempt to dismantle it. >> with the inventory complete, each piece is delicately removed. >> then you've got to consider everything that you don't see -- the wiring, the hidden loop tracks, the

behind-the-scenes parts of it. >> finally, the various sections of the layout, called decks, are ever so carefully split apart. >> you've got to make strategic cuts and be very careful with it. >> the last step -- forklift the decks out of their second-story home. one wrong move and the display will come crashing down. >> we just don't want to drop anything. that would be a tragedy. ♪ >> but there will be no tragedies today. the sections are safely loaded onto a truck and the entire lot gets shipped to nearby frisco, texas, for reassembly. and the museum will not only reinstall the display, but add to it, so they can show off even more of steve's trains. >> we can share it with, you know, literally tens of thousands of people a year. and even though he's no longer with us, he really lives on.

>> do you think he would approve of what you're doing? >> oh, i think he would be so excited. he always had this way of giggling when he was very, very happy and i think that he would just be walking around giggling right now. >> that legacy is still going and will continue for, hopefully, very, very many years, that my children can take their children to go see it and say this was pop's place. >> when it comes to model-train enthusiasts, steve's in very good company. take frank sinatra. old "blue eyes" dedicated an entire wing of his california ranch to model trains. then there's buster keaton. he was so enamored with the hobby that he had trains running through his backyard carrying cocktails to pool-side quests. and when rod stewart's train display was featured on the cover of model railroader, he said it meant more to him than being on the cover of rolling stone. i'm jamie colby.

thanks so much for watching "strange inheritance." and remember -- you can't take it with you. [ train whistle blows ] >> was he a lifelong hoarder or a shrewd collector? the answer lies inside this salvage yard filled with rusty old cars. >> did you know how many cars grandpa had? >> the locals say it's a worthless eyesore. >> whoo-hoo! >> his grandson calls it an "iron gold mine." [ auctioneer calling ] which is the truth? we're about to find out. >> sold it! [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ] >> i'm jamie colby, and i'm just driving in to enid, oklahoma, which is about 90 miles north of

oklahoma city. population -- roughly 50,000. right here in enid, they have the third largest storage capacity for grain on the planet. but wedged in between enid's silos lies the tale of a cantankerous legend who left his grandchildren with a very strange inheritance. >> my name is stuart piontek, and in 2003, my brothers and sisters and i inherited something pretty unusual from my grandfather. his name was oliver jordan, and he died at 95. he was a child of the dust bowl. grandpa would hold on to just about everything that passed through his life, whether it was a tin can, an automobile, a piece of copper wire. >> and oliver jordan kept it all here. for 60 years. this salvage lot was his home, his sanctuary, his fort knox. hi, stuart! >> welcome to paradise. >> i found it! the rusted old cars in this shed -- some of them relics of the roaring '20s -- are a few of

the more than 200 that jordan accumulated over his lifetime. born in 1908, jordan was raised on a wheat farm. but his real interest was that fabulous new invention, the car. >> grandpa was around machinery all the time, and automobiles were just beginning to happen. he got interested, and it was just a lifelong passion. >> jordan grows up, gets married, and then, at 34 years old, abandons his wife and three young kids for a 16-year-old girl in town. >> when my mother and her brother and sister were still children, my grandfather left the family for another woman. her name was ruby, and that was quite a scandal. everybody was hurt by it. >> in 1946, oliver buys a salvage yard in enid, where he and ruby live, and where he makes money selling old cars and parts. oliver runs the salvage yard

successfully for seven years. but then in 1953, he gets into a nasty argument with the town of enid over zoning and regulations -- two words he detests. >> the city came in and told him he had to put in a bathroom and do some other things, and grandpa just didn't like to be told what to do. >> he was just not a rule follower. >> yeah, he was like, "then fine. i'll close the doors." and that's what he did. >> oliver continues to hoard old cars. he cuts himself off from most of his family and rarely lets another soul inside the shuttered salvage yard. >> pretty much everybody in this town would drive by grandpa's property and see all these old cars sitting right there. and some people -- they thought they were an eye sore, you know. >> enid native brad waken recalls venturing over to the old man's place as a very young car buff in the 1970s. >> i walked across the street. it was, "mr. jordan, i'm looking for a starter for a continental six-cylinder engine. do you have one?" well, after a long pause he

basically said, "well, it's gonna be $50." well, came back about a month later with my $50. he said, "nope. $75." [ chuckles ] i learned a little bit of horse trading at that point in time. >> as a boy, stuart never gets to know grandpa oliver. stuart's mom, oliver's daughter, dies when stuart is only six -- a tragedy that separates him further from his grandfather. >> we would come to town to visit my grandfather, and grandpa had all these cars out in front of his property. it's like a little boy's wonderland. and he had them protected with a fence and with big mean dogs. we couldn't get past the dogs. >> did you ever wish that he spent more time with you? >> you know -- >> were you curious about him? >> yeah, i was eager for the opportunity to get to know him. >> after his mother's death, stuart and his family move away. when stuart graduates high

school in 1984, he decides to take a summer road trip back to enid. >> i got a greyhound bus ticket and went out to enid on my own. he took me over to his shop, and for the first time, i got to spend some time with my grandfather. >> and with all those cars. sure, they look like heaps of scrap, but stuart comes to understand this was his grandfather's pride and joy, his collection. its centerpiece -- these two depression-era cords. >> grandpa had a fascination with the cord, because it was the first car that had front-wheel drive, and they had done some really ingenious things under the hood. >> after his high school road trip, stuart heads out west for college and then launches a successful furniture business in san francisco. then, in the fall of 2000, a call from out of the blue sends stuart scrambling back to enid. >> he opens the door [chuckles] and he's covered from head to

toe in feathers. >> that's next. >> but first, our "strange inheritance" quiz question. the answer when we return. ♪music time and time again, you know when i'm doing street magic..i'll walk up to someone and i can just see they're against me right? they don't want to be amazed. they don't want this experience to happen. but then the magic happens. ♪can we be there? and all of that falls away. ♪oh, just think of the time ♪i know that some will say come on man!

♪it matters a little babe. stunned. i believe in magic. it's the experience of waking up and seeing things the way you saw them before they became ordinary. ♪i needed to try (amazement & laughter) ♪i needed to fall that's the goal. i'm looking for that experience of wonder. ♪i need never get old

>> so, what was the lowest priced mass-produced american car? it's "b," the 1925 ford model t runabout. at $260, it sold for $5 less than the 1924 model. ♪ >> for half a century, cantankerous junkyard owner oliver jordan accumulates hundreds of old cars, some very rare and mostly intact, but all

of them rusting as he grows old. then, in the fall of 2000, his grandson stuart gets a phone call that opens the door to a new relationship and to a strange inheritance. >> ruby, his companion of 60 years, had fallen off a ladder and broken her hip, and she was in the hospital. she called worried about grandpa, because he was back at the house and he was 94 years old. and that was the open door. >> and it took till his 90s, really. >> yeah, because of who he was. he didn't want to need anybody. >> stuart hops on a plane to oklahoma, not knowing what to expect. >> so, here i knock on the door. he's 6'4", and even at 94, he has got quite a commanding presence. and he opens the door [chuckles] and he's covered from head to toe in feathers. he and ruby had a couple of dogs, and one of the dogs had torn up the feather bed. there was something about him that still just commanded respect, even covered in feathers.

>> seeing oliver in such a terrible state, stuart decides to stay in oklahoma for a while and take care of his grandfather. >> i was getting to know my grandfather through these cars. he was so proud to be showing them to me and me experiencing his life's work and his pride and joy. >> to stuart, two things become immediately clear. first, oliver knows he doesn't have much time left. and second, he's worried about the fate of those cars. >> at one point, he said, "thank god for you. thank god for you." and i think he was so worried about what would happen to his things. >> stuart's no car expert, but he does his homework and confirms that the centerpiece of the whole collection is indeed those cords from the 1930s, the ones he remembers from his high school road trip. what did the last cord sell for? >> i'm not sure, but maybe not more than 400 of these or 500 of these were ever made. >> best-case scenario. >> i'm thinking best-case scenario, restored, is probably $300,000, $350,000 maybe.

>> thoughts like that lead stuart down a road that will take him more than a decade to travel and cost him plenty. just for starters, he lays out tens of thousands of dollars to ship in secure containers and build a steel storage building to house the most prized cars. >> it's his life's work, but also if these things are so valuable, why are they just rotting away here, you know? and someone has to step in and do something about it. >> in august 2003, oliver jordan dies at the age of 95, leaving his enormous automobile collection to stuart and his siblings. >> the original windows that they would stick in the sides... >> stuart tells me this 1924 rollin touring car is one of his personal favorites. the model was popular among bootleggers during prohibition. >> so, there's toggle switches on the dashboard where they would turn off the taillights if they were being followed by somebody. >> to hide the booze. >> that's right. >> but these cars represent just

a snippet of oliver's vast collection. i've never seen anything like this, stuart. there are so many cars. >> it's quite a strange thing to inherit, isn't it? >> before he dies, oliver gives stuart some business advice. >> he said, "now, don't sell all of those cars and parts all at once. you sell them one at a time." 'cause you'd make more money that way. >> but after trying to sell a couple online, stuart realizes it would take the rest of his life to sell them one-by-one. turns out just getting the titles for all these old cars takes months. >> you had to get title to every single one of these cars? they're from the '30s. how do you that? >> let me show you. >> first, you have to find the cars' i.d. numbers. >> oh, my god. you can still read it! >> well, we had to polish it off. but we were able to actually get titles for the majority of the cars. >> the years click by like odometer miles. and stuart keeps spending more to authenticate and protect the old cars.

a lot of plane trips from san francisco and back, too. by 2013, he says, he's invested $400,000 getting the collection primed for auction. ready or not, it's time to sell. >> hey, jamie. >> hi. how are you, yvette? stuart contacts auctioneer yvette vanderbrink to appraise the collection. so, is stuart sitting on a pile of junk or a potential gold mine? >> there's about 220 of them. they're mostly american cars, and they're pre-war, which is pre-1942. very rare cars, 'cause at the start of world war ii, they started limiting production. and you could only get one from a ration coupon. >> stuart and yvette make plans for a one-day auction right here on the salvage lot. word begins to spread about oliver jordan's old treasures. stuart soon learns that's not altogether a good thing. >> we arrived at the property and found someone had cut through the fence and then cut a

hole in the side of this building the size of a human body, and they stole over 250 antique radiators, tons of chrome parts, a lot of nice stuff. >> the antique radiators alone are worth nearly $40,000. but the biggest loss for stuart is the theft of oliver's rare and beloved 1904 harley-davidson, possibly worth several hundred thousand dollars. >> so, it really set us back, and we had to hire additional security and we had to move the auction forward. >> that entails some word-of-mouth advertising by him and some seat-of-the-pants hot-rodding by me. you have this thing insured? >> yes, i do. >> oh, good thing, because there's a tree right there. that's next. [ tires squeal ] >> here's another quiz question for you.

the answer when we return.

>> so, which of these deceased celebrity's cars sold for the highest bid at auction? it's the actor steve mcqueen. in 2013, his ford gt40 sold for $11 million. >> stuart piontek is racing to auction off his strange inheritance -- hundreds of vintage cars. his grandfather's lifelong obsession has become stuart's own. he's invested 13 years and $400,000 in the collection. ♪ i catch up with him at the hot rod association rally in oklahoma city.

>> hi, my name is stuart. did you know my grandfather? >> while stuart works the crowd, i'm gonna see if i can get behind the wheel of one of these souped-up automobiles. >> how are you doing? hey, i'm jamie. >> hello, jamie. >> how are you? >> hello, i'm steven. >> tell me about this car. >> well it's a '37 chevrolet, so it's 77 years old. so, i've had it quite a bit of it's life. >> part of the family. >> yes, it is. >> oh, my. i've just gotten the keys. >> we can do that. >> let's go. >> all right. >> you have this thing insured? >> yes, i do. >> oh, good thing, because there's a tree right there. >> all right. hold on. whoo-hoo! now we're talking! [ tires screech ] this would work for me in new york. auctioneer yvette vanderbrink is here, too. so, yvette, you know, you see these shiny red cars, and, i mean, you can tell there must be some value here. but some of them look like junk. but they're not? >> no. they're not junk. you know, it's a different trend

in the car-collecting hobby now. >> that trend is called patina. it refers to the factory-original paint that shows the ravages of time. some car collectors relish that vintage, barn-find look and spray a clear coat of varnish on top to preserve it. that could be good news for the rarest cars stuart has -- those two cords from the 1930s. but if you're like me, you're wondering what they might look like restored. i didn't have to go far to find out. remember brad waken, who once tried to buy a starter from old oliver jordan? he's now a cord aficionado. he's spent over 30 years restoring this cord. it's a stunning example of what a cord looks like in all its glory. >> we went through the engine, we painted it, we fixed the interior. it's something that we looked at restoring history and not just putting on a nice paint job and chroming everything.

[ indistinct p.a. announcement ] [ auctioneer calling ] >> on june 7, 2014, it's finally the big day of the auction. >> we're gonna have fun and we're gonna book and i just killed 10 minutes. >> auctioneer yvette vanderbrink welcomes a crowd of at least 300 people. >> hope i covered everything for you. all right? >> stuart's sister starla crosses her fingers. >> it's been a lot of hard work. i hope that stuart just at least he gets back what he's put into it and that my other siblings, that what they've put into it, they get back. >> all right, guys! this was one of mr. jordan's favorite vehicles. >> stuart's put in 400 grand. will he get it back? >> $35,000. >> i have $40,000. >> $40,000. >> that's next. ♪yea, you can be the greatest ♪you can be the best ♪you can be the king kong ♪bangin on your chest ♪you can beat the world you can beat the war♪

♪you can talk to god while bangin on his door♪ ♪you can throw your hands up you can beat the clock♪ ♪you can move a mountain you can break rocks♪ ♪you can be a master don't wait for luck♪ ♪dedicate yourself and you can find yourself♪ ♪standin in the hall of fame ♪yea ♪and the world's gonna know your name, yea♪

>> now back to "strange inheritance." >> the buzz over oliver jordan's antique-car auction has brought collectors from all over the country to enid, oklahoma. some are just looking to buy parts, but others are here with plenty to spend for just the right vehicle. >> i came with a trailer and a pick-up, and if i have to, i'll run back and get a bigger truck and a bigger trailer to haul more cars. [ auctioneer calling ] >> you have to be quick to

purchase in this game. these cars can go in less than a minute. >> [ calling ] sold it! [ calling ] sold it! sold it! sold it! sold it! $9,600. >> people seem in good spirits, and things seem to moving pretty well, so it's going pretty good. >> stuart's cautiously optimistic as oliver jordan's two beloved cords are about to go up for bid. stuart thinks they'd each be worth six figures if fully restored. but how much in this condition? >> the 1937 cord 812 beverly supercharged. this was one of mr. jordan's favorite vehicles. it's going to need every little piece restored. okay. $35,000. >> i have $40,000. >> $40,000. >> yes! >> now $42,000. [ calling ]

sold it! $42,000. going to new york. >> what will the second cord fetch? >> tara, what do you got? >> i got $20,000. >> $20,000, and we're going. [ calling ] sold it! $22,000. >> it's over in seconds. the same anonymous telephone bidder pays $64,000 for both cars. stuart says he's not disappointed. >> in this condition, that's a great price for them -- as much as we could have hoped for. and it's really great because they're gonna move on. >> after an emotional day, the grand total for this auction -- $540,000. subtract the $400,000 stuart

invested and it's a profit of $140,000 to split with his siblings. add in all that time the family invested in this strange inheritance, and it's no windfall. >> so, here we go. >> whoo-hoo! >> that's a good one. >> all right. >> then again, watching the grandchildren of oliver jordan pop open the bubbly has to make you wonder -- was their 13-year-old enterprise ever really about turning rusted iron into gold? or was it about a different kind of alchemy -- one, perhaps, that restores broken and brittle family ties into strong, lifelong bonds? >> we lost our mother when we were rather young, and we didn't really get to know her parents that well, and so this brought us closer. >> would grandpa -- what would he say? he'd say, "stuart..." >> i think he'd say, "i'm proud of you," you know? >> would that be important for you to hear from your grandfather? >> yeah, definitely.

and that's really what it was about for me -- doing right by him and by my family. >> stuart sold all of his grandpa's cars, and he regretted losing only one -- the 1924 rollin touring car. it was a favorite of prohibition bootleggers, and on auction day, an 86-year-old woman came just to see it. she explained that her grandfather had driven it to the hospital the day she was born and then sold it to oliver jordan. of all the stories about this strange inheritance, this may have been stuart's favorite. bought the touring car -- for $4,800 -- to let him know if he ever resold it. stuart might want to buy that one back. i'm jamie colby for "strange inheritance." thanks so much for watching, and remember -- you can't take it with you. do you have a strange inheritance story you'd like to

share with us? we'd love to hear it. send me an e-mail or go to our website, strangeinheritance.com. forward to serve our country deserve a fair and dignified evasion not a destruction based on lies and deception. >> well this isbred cana moving forward as newest supreme court justice, the president accusing democrats of a campaign of destruction one of the big stories we are following. >> our other big story is that the major breach at goggle and the company hid it for months. >> man pick market monday, the dow down over 230 points during the session before closing up 39 points yesterday. the nasdaq down hired day in a row. >> bond traders sending yield on